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Of the Ottoman Universe GAZA AS “THE THEORY OF EVERTHING” OF THE OTTOMAN UNIVERSE: UNDERSTANDING CONTACT AND CONFLICT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN by Deniz Özlem Çevik Department of History and Classical Studies McGill University, Montréal August 2016 A Thesis Submitted to McGill University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts © Deniz Özlem Çevik, 2016 0 Abstract This study is an attempt to evaluate how encounters between Muslims and non-Muslims in the early modern Mediterranean were represented by the Ottomans. It compares the representations from two periods, medieval Anatolia and early modern Mediterranean, to discover the transitivity of manners of narrating encounters from a region to another, and from a time period to another. The main objective is to discuss the importance of “gaza” concept, which literally means “holy war” and of one of the most heated topic among Ottomanists, as the dominant way of narrating the encounters among Muslims in two periods. Through a comparative reading of two texts that reflect this concept, a prose biography of a Muslim corsair from the sixteenth century and a warrior epic from the thirteenth century, it offers a two-layered analysis of the subject. In the first layer, the resemblances between socio-political structures of medieval Anatolia and that of early modern Mediterrenean that allowed “gaza” to migrate from one to another will be evaluated. In the second layer, it shows the discursive similarities that prove the transitivity of “gaza” as a narrative tool from one textual world to another. Résumé Ce mémoire a pour but d’analyser les réprésentations ottomanes des rencontres entre les musulmans et les chretiens dans la Méditerrannée durant l’époque moderne. Une comparaison entre des réprésentations écrites au Moyen Âge et à l’époque moderne sera effectuée afin de découvrir comment les discours sur les rencontres interconfessionnelles se sont transférés d’une région à une autre ainsi que d’une époque à une autre. Une attention particulière sera portée sur le concept de gaza (guerre sainte) qui était au fondement de ce discours. Ce dernier, est entre autre véhiculé par deux manuscrits qui seront analysés ici : une biographie d’un corsaire musulman très connu écrite au 16e siècle et une épique de guerre écrite au 13e siecle. L’analyse comportera deux niveaux. D’abord, des ressemblances entre les organisations sociopolitiques anatoliennes et méditéranéennes durant le Moyen Âge et l’époque moderne seront étayées. Ensuite, des similarités seront présentées venant ainsi prouver le transfert du concept de gaza en tant qu’outil discursif entre des mondes différents. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................3 List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................4 Introduction: Stopping the Clock ....................................................................................................6 Part One: Context ..........................................................................................................................13 I-Introduction ..........................................................................................................................13 II-Time, Place and People: From Medieval Anatolia to Early Modern Mediterranean ........16 III-Towards a Centralized State: How to Deal with Gaza Tradition .....................................23 IV- Migration of Gaza from Land to Sea ..............................................................................27 V- From Turcoman Warriors of Anatolia to Muslim Corsairs of Mediterranean ..................34 Part Two: The Voyage of Gaza as a Discourse ............................................................................41 I-Introduction ..........................................................................................................................42 II- Questions on the Authenticity of Sources ........................................................................44 III- The Composition of the GHP and Tevarih .....................................................................51 IV- Narratological Continuities and Contextual Differences ................................................55 a. Representations of the Encounters between the Characters ...............................55 b. Geography .........................................................................................................62 c. Language and Terminology ..............................................................................66 d. Representations of Habits and Rituals ..............................................................69 V-Final Remarks ...................................................................................................................78 Part Three: Paradigms ....................................................................................................................80 I-Introduction ....................................................................................................................81 II-Two Paradigms and Two Mediterraneans ....................................................................82 III-Gaza or Multiculturalism? How to Convert a Knowledge into Comprehension ........85 Conclusion: Is Gaza “the Theory of Everything” of the Ottoman Universe? ..............................90 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................93 2 Acknowledgements In the process of writing this thesis, I am grateful to my supervisor Dr. Giancarlo Casale for his both academic and personal support with his gentle ways to make me more disciplined, and his effort throughout the process of editing and redaction. I also owe an intellectual debt to our weekly meetings by which I developed the raw ideas about this thesis. My first intellectual debt, however, belongs to my parents who provided me a home full of books and discussions which was seemingly my first academic environment. Without my mother’s support, I would not have survived during the years of living away from home. And many thanks to my father, Still Crazy after Years, the first Québécois I have ever met, who paved the way for my graduate degree in Montréal where he studied and showed me both the pleasure and rigour to be an immigrant-Québécoise. I would like to thank Prof. Nancy Partner who introduced me the work of Paul Ricoeur and changed my perception of history writing. I am also grateful to Prof. Anastassios Anastassiadis for his support in my first year when my mind was full of questions. I should mention the names of my friends Ömer Kazancı, Nesibe Sena Arslan, Kerim Kartal, Ezgi Memiş and Kerem Renda for their support from the distant parts of the world, and Remzi Çağatay Çakırlar whose thesis was an example for me to understand the extents of a good MA thesis. And last but not least, special thanks to Yusuf Ziya Karabıçak, whose support, friendship and guidance in Montréal always encouraged me in trusting myself. I am also grateful to all librarians of McLennan and Islamic Studies Library whose help is appreciated especially during the last month of editing my work and to the Department of History and Classical Studies for the fund for getting one of the manuscripts from the British Library. And finally, thanks to Jean-Michel Boivin-Deschênes for being not only a lovely partner but also my best friend and a fellow graduate student who always trusted in the quality of my work. Without his support, encouragement and patience, this challenging process of writing would have been more stressful and less joyful. Merci infiniment! 3 List of Abbreviations BNF: Bibliothèque Nationale de France BL : British Library GHP: Gazavât-ı Hayreddin Paşa IA: İslam Ansiklopedisi, Diyanet (Encyclopedia of Islam) IU: İstanbul Üniversitesi (Istanbul University) Tevarih: Tevârih-i Hayreddin Paşa 4 In memory of Başar 5 INTRODUCTION: Stopping the Clock The first impression of a history student studying the history of the Mediterranean is that of a grandfather clock pendulum swinging back and forth between the conventional views of seeing the Mediterranean as a “conflict zone” or as a “contact zone”. When the pendulum is swinging back, the people of the early modern Mediterranean are defined as actors who are preconditioned to engage in wars with each other in the name of religion. The essential distinction and timeless dispute between two civilizational worlds, Islam and the West, characterizes the region.1 When it is swinging forth, the same people are portrayed as humble, flexible and pragmatic agents who peacefully interact with each other. At the end, their interaction creates a cosmopolitan and multicultural Mediterranean which is the cradle of many different cultural and religious groups. This time, the peaceful co-existence of different cultures characterize the region. For most of the last half century, if not longer, historians who focus on the Mediterranean of the early modern period have generally have mainly fallen into two camps. The first camp consists of scholars who have sided with the view of the Mediterranean as a region of confrontation. According to this view, the identity of people in this period was preconditioned and motivated mainly by religious dichotomies.2 Living in two essentially different worlds, 1 Instead of Islam vs.
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